Home-Visiting Volunteers

Across the UK thousands of Home-Start volunteers visit families at home each week, supporting parents/carers in situations as diverse as isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness, disability or who are just finding parenting a struggle. They provide non-judgemental practical and emotional support and help build the family’s confidence and ability to cope. Home-Start runs more services and has more volunteers supporting more families than any other family support charity in the UK.

All Home-Start schemes are supported by Home-Start UK, which provides training for staff, volunteers and trustees, information and guidance on governance, legal and human resources issues and help with fundraising and communications.

A quick guide to becoming a Home-Start Home-Visiting Volunteer

• You must be a parent or have parenting experience.
• You can commit 2-3 hours of your time once a week.
• You should be able to commit at least six months of your time to Home-Start.
• You should have a non-judgemental attitude and understand about the pressures of bringing up a family.
• You should enjoy meeting new people and spending time with adults and children.
• You can commit to attending our free Volunteer Training Course (c. 30 hours over several days/weeks) before meeting your first family.
• You can expect to be reimbursed travel expenses during training and while you support a family.
• You must understand that your support for families is completely confidential.
• You will have to become a member of the PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) scheme.
• You will be supported by your local Home-Start scheme Coordinators during the time you are visiting families.

Next Step

If you would like to become a Home-Start volunteer please complete the Volunteer Application Form and either email or post it back to us - or feel free to pop in to the office for a coffee and a chat. If you want to know more then please contact the Home-Start office on 0141 889 5272, email our office, have a look at our Facebook page . We will get back to you to discuss how you can become involved.